Marriott is offering a 25% discount on purchased points through December 20, 2022 when purchasing 2000 points or more.
With this promotion you’re buying points for $0.009375 apiece. I believe they’re worth $0.006. Even with the discount you’re paying more than a 50% premium for the points. They need to offer a 50% discount – rather than 25% – before this comes close to something to even consider for most folks, in my view.
There’s an edge case where it can make sense to buy Marriott points: when you want to top off towards a specific redemption, and just need a few points, it makes sense to overpay for those points (since you’ll be making the rest of the points you already have more valuable).
However Marriott has made it tough to do this as anything but an immediate play – when you need those extra points for a booking you will make now. That’s because,
- Marriott eliminated their award chart, so you don’t know what a room redemption will cost in the future
- Starting in 2023 all gloves are off for dynamic award pricing.
Hotels that cost 60,000 points per night in 2018 now cost 130,000 points in some cases. And that’s under strict rules for 2022 that create an upper bound in the number of points Marriott charges, rules that go away for 2023. Moreover, Marriott said they increased the frequency with which they adjust prices, so the price a hotel is charging for awards today may not be the same as the price they’ll charge when you’re ready to redeem.
Marriott told us that next year’s award pricing will be worse than what it is today. We should believe them. Still, people will take Marriott up on this offer. Marriott elites, whom you’d expect to be well-informed, will take them up on this offer. After all, Marriott elites like Marriott points more than the median consumer. Hopefully they’re savvy enough to find the outsized redemptions that still remain.
I think as a whole SPG members were a treasure, something a co looking to do a buyout of, would value. Not so with this company. They not only devalue points, they devalue the most valuable customers. I knew it from the beginning when they stupidly didn’t even let SPG members keep their original member numbers. It was a sign. And it has been downhill since.
One properly I stay at regularly has gone from 35,000 points per night in 2017 and 2018 to 70,000 points per night in 2022. I’m seeing other properties that want 1.4 million Bonvoy points for 4 nights in a suite. I fully expect a standard room at the most attractive properties—if you can even find availability as most of the nice properties only seem to have higher category rooms or suites available at significantly higher rates—will cost 100,000 to 200,000 points per night.
Absent long-term elites with a million or more points in their account, I don’t know how anyone just starting the points game with a credit card who only does 20-50 nights a year at Marriott hotels will ever bank enough points to use for that dream trip.
I remain convinced that this will hurt the owners of mediocre Marriotts in the US because the only reason road warriors stay at the old Courtyard or Fairfield over a nicer competing brand or independent hotel is to get Marriott points. If those points become impossible to bank for the yearly vacation to Paris or the Caribbean then why stay at that Courtyard or Fairfield? Suddenly, the Best Western Premier or Hyatt Place or whatever is more attractive.
There are no dream trips to be had on points. You can stay in great hotels on points. But if you’re planning something on a honeymoon level, then you got to pay with money.
High value customers in the SPG era are all free agents now. Nobody is loyal to any hotel chain. The benefits of loyalty do not exist when hotels are by and large franchised. The owner of a Marriott also owns the Hilton across the street. You got Diamond status? Here’s $18 toward breakfast that costs at least $35. By the way all the ingredients are frozen and processed junk. Better not eat it in your room because if you spill anything there is no housekeeping.
Hotel loyalty made sense for a bygone generation of travelers. Not anymore
@Fauci: “Hotel loyalty made sense for a bygone generation of travelers. Not anymore”
I disagree.
That may be true if you are traveling to markets with good Airbnb rentals or a high number of independent hotels and branded hotels in chains with weak to nonexistent loyalty programs (think Omni). But I don’t know why ANYONE would forgo maintaining top-tier status with Marriott, Hyatt or IHG since staying at one of their properties as a free agent with no or low-level status means little to no benefits and poor treatment if things go wrong. Free agency probably works with Hilton since you can keep top-tier diamond status by merely having their credit card. That’s not the case at Marriott or Hyatt, although IHG credit cards come with second-tier platinum status that is sufficient for anyone staying at Holiday Inn Express properties.
There is almost never a solid case for trading a fixed-value currency (in this case, dollars) to acquire a currency of no established or opaque value. You wouldn’t march up to an airport Thomas Cook desk with the exchange-quote board all blanked out, and buy Euro or yen with no idea what they’ll be worth until you try to spend them. (Dynamic pricing across the travel sector makes buying points or miles look even more foolhardy.) The cratering Bonvoy program is just a particularly bad example of this broad trend.
Last week, I exchanged 720,000 Marriott points for 300,000 Delta SkyMiles (it took 3 days because of the maximum daily limit). I’m gambling that Delta miles will retain their value better than Marriott points, although both options have risks.
@FNT,
“That’s not the case at Marriott or Hyatt”
The Amex Bonvoy Brilliant (with a high annual fee) now gives automatic Marriott platinum status.
The Marriott Dumpster Fire continues to burn..
@Bruce S: I think that’s a horrible transfer. 300,000 Delta miles is half the number of miles required for a single round-trip Delta business-class ticket across the Atlantic. 720,000 Bonvoy points is 2 1/2 5-night redemptions at very nice hotels in London, Paris and elsewhere.
@Luke: Platinum is NOT top-tier status with Marriott. Diamond is top-tier with Hilton.
@Luke: And if you do a benefit-by-benefit comparison, Hilton diamond is more comparable to Marriott platinum than Marriott ambassador or Hyatt globalist.
Nonsense. There is hardly a substantive difference among Marriott’s top three elite levels, and call me when WoH Globalists begin getting the 4th or 5th award night free – the single most valuable perk in hotel loyalty.
And, BTW, if you have not heard, Hilton’s top elite status is Lifetime Diamond, which is to ‘standard’ HH Diamond, what UA Global Services is to UA 1K.
G’day.
I’m burning my Marriott points on my next trip to Dubai, including staying at Al Maha, an aspirational hotel in Dubai which costs $1400 per night. Even though I’m a Marriott Platinum member, and have stayed at many aspirational hotels over the years (beginning with SPG), I’ll be moving on next year to Hyatt, whenever possible.
Lifetime Marriott Titanium, mostly earned through nights in Marriott beds. Was not not an old SPG hand. IMO Marriott was once the best program for people who primarily earned points through stays.
75 nights on the road would get me 10 nights free with the family at my favorite Caribbean hotel. That would now take 2.5 – 3 years or so of earn. It’s their business and they can do what they want with their rebate, but I now spend as many nights at Hyatt as I can.
Marriott properties are strictly backup properties now. Oh well.
@ FNT Delta Diamond
“…with Hilton since you can keep top-tier diamond status by merely having their credit card…”
AmEx has 3 HHonors cards — “merely” appears to be the $495 annual fee Aspire card for Diamond. The $95 Surpass card gets you Gold, and the no-fee card Silver.
https://www.americanexpress.com/us/credit-cards/compare/hilton/
@GaryK Sure, but you can make a fair case that the practical, functional difference between Diamond and Gold is so slight, it’s not worth the extra $400 premium Amex asks for Aspire.